FBI Divers to Use Sonar in Search for Iowa Girls

RYAN J. FOLEY On Jul 20, 2012

This combo made from undated photos provided by Black Hawk County police shows cousins Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, left, and Elizabeth Collins, 8, who have been missing since Friday afternoon, July 13, 2012. The girls were last seen Friday afternoon leaving their grandmother''s house. (AP Photo/Black Hawk County Police via Waterloo Courier)

Photo credit: The Associated Press

Misty and Dan Morrissey a walk out of the command center by DCI agent Jon Turbett, right, Thursday, July 19, 2012, in Evansdale, Iowa. Authorities investigating the disappearance of two Iowa cousins missing for nearly a week said Thursday it is a distraction that one set of parents has consulted an attorney and may not be fully cooperating. (AP Photo/The Waterloo Courier, Matthew Putney)

Photo credit: The Associated Press

Connie Abben, back, comforts her granddaughter Jazmyn Lewis, 7, both of Evansdale, while looking out over Meyers Lake on Thursday, July 19, 2012 in Evansdale, Iowa as search efforts continue for missing cousins Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, of Waterloo, and Elizabeth Collins, 8, of Evansdale who have been missing since Friday. Lewis attends the same Elementary school as Elizabeth Collins. (AP Photo/Waterloo Courier, Dawn J. Sagert)

Photo credit: The Associated Press

Evansdale Amvet Riders & Patriot Guard Riders came from National Guard sendoff to Meyers Lake to pray for the missing cousins Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, and Elizabeth Collins, 8, Thursday, July 19, 2012, in Evansdale, Iowa. Authorities investigating the disappearance of two Iowa cousins missing for nearly a week said Thursday it is a distraction that one set of parents has consulted an attorney and may not be fully cooperating. (AP Photo/The Waterloo Courier, Matthew Putney)

Photo credit: The Associated Press

EVANSDALE, Iowa (AP) — FBI agents and local police surveyed a northeast Iowa lake early Friday in preparation for a team of diving experts that will search the water for two young girls who disappeared in the area a week ago.

Meyers Lake is about a mile from the Evansdale home where 10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey and her cousin, 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins, were last seen on July 13. The girls set off on a bike ride and never returned. Their bicycles were found on a path near the lake.

The agents slowly cruised the lake in a Department of Natural Resources boat while the FBI divers planned their dive.

Black Hawk County Chief Deputy Rick Abben said some pockets of the 26-acre lake were up to 20 feet deep, despite a three-day operation to drain it. Agents will be looking for the girls' bodies as well as anything in the lake that might be evidence, he said.

Evansdale resident Billy Fischels, 38, who said he's helped in the search for the girls, waited for the arrival of the FBI dive team. He tied a sign to a telephone pole with a handwritten note, telling the girls they have the support of the nation and should stay strong.

"You've got a whole community and a nation that wants answers. Hopefully today they can get some," Fischels said. "I'd much rather see them alive and well somewhere, but if they are out there in the lake, at least everybody will know."

Search teams initially dredged the lake, and then began draining it on Monday. But on Thursday they halted the draining operation because the FBI team needs at least 6 feet of water for the sonar equipment to function. On Friday, parts of the lake were nearly empty of water, with the sandy and muddy bottom showing, but other areas still had feet of murky water. The lake, near an interstate, is stocked with fish and normally is popular for fishing.

The FBI uses two kinds of sonar — one that can detect debris in murky water and another that provides a 360-degree analysis of the bottom of the lake. That device is mounted on a tripod that sends signals to computers on the surface helping direct divers where to search.

As the surveillance boat made laps around the lake, four officers slowly walked along the shore, looking for evidence. They waded into water that ranged from ankle-deep to chest-high.

About 20 onlookers, mostly residents who had volunteered with the search, waited in the park near the lake for news of developments.

Angie Webb, 29, a teacher at the elementary school in the Waterloo suburb that Elizabeth attended, said she was holding out hope that the FBI divers would be unsuccessful and that the girls would show up alive.

"If they are in the lake, that's the worst-case scenario. You've got to be hopeful," Webb said.

On Thursday, tension between investigators and Lyric's parents seemed to reach a breaking point, with police suggesting they weren't cooperating and the couple consulting an attorney.

Tammy Brousseau, an aunt of both girls, told The Associated Press that Misty Cook-Morrissey and Dan Morrissey feel they're being treated as suspects.

She said an attorney advised the couple on Wednesday to stop talking to reporters, discontinue television interviews and not agree to take any more polygraph tests, Brousseau said. Authorities have not said that the parents took the so-called lie detector tests, although Cook-Morrissey told KCCI TV in Des Moines that she had undergone such tests during police interviews.

"That makes it a distraction for us when people decide to do things other than to cooperate 100 percent," Black Hawk County Chief Deputy Rick Abben said. "However, it's their choice how they wish to proceed with that."

Abben said investigators are aware that Lyric's parents have criminal records.

"Everyone was checked into. We did background checks on those people immediately and on everyone," Abben said.

Morrissey, 36, has three drug convictions, including possession of marijuana and ingredients used to make methamphetamine, most recently in 2011, court records show. He also was charged with domestic abuse causing bodily injury in August 2011 and has a trial date set for September.

Cook-Morrissey, 34, pleaded guilty in 2003 in federal court to conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine, court documents show. She also has theft and alcohol violations in state court. She is on supervised release after her probation was revoked in September for violating terms of her probation, including use of illegal drugs, excessive use of alcohol and failure to comply with drug tests.